


To the Stars and Beyond.

by ThePoetess



Series: Star Trek [6]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-23 22:02:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 6,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7481598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePoetess/pseuds/ThePoetess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Irina Galliulin comes on board the Enterprise believing that only here the past will not come back to haunt her, or at least she hopes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Captain's Log.

**Author's Note:**

> To Anton Yelchin, the perfect Chekov. (Not saying I don't like Walter Koenig, because I do think he played a great Chekov as well)

To The Stars and Beyond.

Under the stars.

See from afar  
Reunited under the stars  
Sharing our own stories  
Twisted with different memories  
\- Anonymous

Chapters

Chapter I. Captain's Log  
Chapter II. The Five Year Mission  
Chapter III. Irina  
Chapter V. Dr. Sevrin and the Aurora  
Chapter IV. The Search for Eden  
Chapter VII. History  
Chapter VIII. Pavel Andrievich Chekov  
Chapter IX. The Strange Encounter  
Chapter X. Shallow Bones  
Chapter XI. Eden  
Chapter XII. The End to the Beginning 

 

Chapter I. Captain's Log

"Captain's log, star date 2268," James Tiberius Kirk sat before the database of the small computing system on the table, he repeated his words while rubbing his fingers briskly through his dirty blonde hair, raking through it with his fingers as he wearily stared down at the wooden grains of the table before him and nursed the bottle beside him in one hand. 

"Keptin? Keptin James Tiberius Kirk?" Startled out of his black study Jim Kirk looked up into the large tear stained blue eyes of a young woman standing beside him. She repeated her question as he looked up at her blearily. "Yes, I am James Tiberius Kirk, captain of the Enterprise, you are?" The woman took a seat before him and moved the bottle of alcohol away from the edge of the table, it was clear that the weeks events had driven him to drown his pain in a bottle of Romulan ale, she couldn't blame him, if she could she would have willingly done the same, if only to forget. "I am Galliulin, Irina Pavlovovich, sir, keptin," she spoke very slowly and with a pained expression the captain did not miss as he looked up into her face, a face that had seen too much for her years.  
He estimated her to be about seventeen.

"Alright Irina Pavlo-vovich Galiulin, what -are you doing on my ship?" He watched as she stiffened in her chair, sitting ramrod straight, she mumbled a curse in Russian, "Star Fleet sent me as a replacement," Kirk stood quite quickly, but ignored the rush of blood to his head, which made him dizzy for a moment, angry, they couldn't possibly think that they could ever replace him so soon! "you can tell Star Fleet that we have no need for a new Ensign, miss Galliulin, tell them thanks anyway, but they can keep their Ensign" she gave him a small half smile "As much as I would like to, I have not come to fill the post left by mr. ?" "Ensign Chekov" she had mirrored him in standing, but now she fell into a chair, almost missing it completely in her shock.

"Ensign Pavel Andrievich Chekov!? Please tell me he is not - he cannot be, - surely not - dead," a small silence invaded the room "Tell me he is not, that it is not true, tell me he is not dead - please?" Jim shook his head, "I'd like to tell you otherwise -" the woman burst into slow tears as he watched her. Defeated, he sat in front of her crossing his arms on his legs and leaning his chin on his hands, he raked through his hair and sighed, "may I ask how you knew Ensign Chekov?" She quickly shook her head "It was many years ago, I hardly remember, now keptin, vould you be so wery kind," sniffing she went on "to direct me to engineering."

"Damnit Jim! I'm a doctor, not a babysitter! How old is she anyway?" "Bones," Leonard McCoy had been having a very bad day. A very bad day indeed as he was being kept very busy in his sickbay. Jim wanted him to do what!? Today of all days. "Damnit Jim, how can you do this to me!? Did that pointy eared dead eyed - unfeeling green goblin suggest this!?" Jim stood with his arms crossed in front of his chest, he leaned back against the cold wall of his quarters "no, I did." Bones scowled at him "you know Jim, sometimes you can be as unfeeling as that pointy eared devil."  
Jim nodded as he walked out "I know, I know."

Christine Chapel was in the sickbay when Dr. McCoy arrived ; still angry from his talk with Jim, he barely noticed she was there.  
"I'm a doctor and he wants me to babysit!? After all the work I have!?" He glanced about and found the pretty blonde nurse watching him with withheld curiosity. "Do you have anything else to stare at nurse Chapel? Or am I so interesting!?" Turning she went back to her work. "Me, a babysitter! Ha! I thought Jim had cracked, but now i see that he is plum crazy."  
Irina Galliulin lay flat on her bed, her brown hair curling out around her like a halo. She was supposed to report to sickbay for a examination, but, she wiped a tear from her eye and sat up, fuming, she didn't need to be examined or moved about like a doll, Dr. Sevrin had already done that, and enough times too for Irina's liking. It had been long ago, somewhere far away, a whole other world away in Leningrad, Russia. They had gone their separate ways, Irina herself going to live in the city with friends ; Chekov going off on a five year mission. That had been at academy. "Irina, what would you like? What do you want?" They had been laying in the soft dewy grass beside the dorms at academy looking up into the starlit sky. Irina turned onto her side and curled up closer to Pavel who wrapped an arm over her and breathed into her hair, waiting to be engulfed by the intoxicatingly beautiful smell of her hair. "I want the stars, but you will do, for right now" she whispered, laughing, and kissed his neck hearing him moan slowly as her lips touched his skin "would you get me the stars Pavel?" She saw him nod in the half light "for you anything, for you I'd take the moon, you want the stars Irina? Just say the world and I'll fly to the moon and back, I'll throw a net about the stars and bring them all to you." He yawned into her hair and she kissed him again, "for you Irina I would go to the stars and beyond for you." He had paused, thinking before he said "I would die for you." But he hadn't, he had just died. He had just died. She closed her eyes, trying to sleep, but failing miserably as memories kept her awake. Haunted her. Missed opportunities, things they said she wished to take back.  
now he was no more than a shadow of a dream. Numb pain like a analgesic coursed through her veins. He was dead, dead. The voice over the com made Irina shoot out of bed. The voice was talking to her. "Irina Galliulin to the bridge, engineer Galliulin to the bridge?"making her way out of the room the young Russian made her way down the winding hallway.  
Twenty minutes later she was lost. 

Getting lost was easy to do, especially on a ship like this. Irina had lived her whole life in little box houses that shot into the sky, piling on top of each other until they blocked out the stars. For Irina the Enterprise was giant and it was easy to get lost. Irina had never felt as if she really belonged, the only place she had felt she belonged had been with Chekov, there and only there had she felt safe. Two red shirts passed her and paid no attention to her as they passed. She looked about and found herself to be standing in front of the open sickbay door. She could hear a gruff voice muttering "damnit Jim, I'm a doctor, has it ever occurred to him that -" at the sight of Irina in the hallway Dr. McCoy poked his head out into the hallway "hello, can I help you?"  
Irina nodded embarrassed "if you please could you direct me to the bridge?" At the sound of her thick accent Bones blinked, he'd been expecting a accent, Scotty had told him she would have a accent, the one replacing engineer O'Rielly, but not another Russian, and so soon after, he went back to looking at her "you lost? Miss," "engineer Irina Galliulin, and yes I am lost, doctor?" She looked around trying to get her bearings "Leonard McCoy, Bones." "Bones, vell can you direct me to the bridge mr. McCoy?" He pointed "go down the hallway about three, oh for crying out loud, I'll just take you there, nurse Chapel, I'm going out for a moment, make sure everything is okay for when I get back?" He directed then started to walk down the hall, Irina jogging behind him. "So you're the new engineer, Scotty told me you would be here for duty today, he is not working you to hard I see." Irina blanched, lost in her own thoughts she had not heard him until then, she nodded slowly "I am the new engineer taking over after engineer O'Rielly was -" McCoy's shoulders slumped in defeat "yeah well, a lot of good people died kid, I'm a doctor, it happens all the time, you think you can save them and then they just -" they stopped in the hallway. He turned looking back at her with resignation on his handsome face "they just die on you, they just give up on you." They took up their fast pace until they came to a biolift. Once inside Irina felt a need to ask the kind doctor something, because she was curious to know the answer "Pavel Chekov, he vas a friend of mine, did you know him vell?" Bones nodded "yes I knew him, I was his doctor, he was always getting injured, be it from a burn from helping Scotty in the engine room or from anything else, other than that I got to know him very well, he was the younger brother I never had, he was everyone's younger brother, the only person who knew him better than I did was Hikaru Sulu, his friend and fellow navigator. So yeah, I knew him. He was a good person - and so damn optimistic it was infectious." The biolift door slid open with a hiss and Irina followed McCoy into the chaos of the bridge.  
Hikaru Sulu had never felt so lost in his life;  
his friend Pavel Chekov was gone, dead at the age of seventeen. He was thinking about that when Dr. McCoy arrived on the bridge followed closely by a young woman he had the strangest feeling he had seen before. Looking to his right he remembered a picture Pavel had pasted to the navigation system beside his buttons, the same woman had been in that picture.  
When he had asked his friend about the woman, Pavel had shrugged and been very vague as to who the woman had been and so Sulu hadn't pressed his friend further for more information.  
Sulu went back to navigating, trying not to watch the woman behind him. "Keptin." He looked up at the word, spoken in a familiar accent, the woman like his friend was Russian. Irina looked about and her eyes came to rest on the navigator who asked her as she stared at him distantly "can I help you?" She shook her head making her brown curls fly "no." She went back to waiting for the captain to speak.  
"We've just intercepted a transport ship, name of the ship is the Aurora, we are going to -" Nyota Uhura interrupted urgently "captain, they are hailing us, it is a distress signal sir," he nodded and repositioned himself in his captain's chair "begin transmission Uhura, let us see what they want. Oh and Sulu, put up the shields just in case, something isn't right, I just have a bad feeling about this." Sulu nodded and fired up the shields "eye eye sir. Shields up."  
"Good, thank you mr. Sulu."

"Captain James Kirk?" Jim swiveled in his captain's chair and came face to screen with a bald headed Tiburonian who glared through the screen at the crew of the Enterprise "captain, we must be rescued, we ask you to save us"

"Mr. Scott, can you lock onto their signals and beam them aboard?" Scotty scowled "eye sir, it might just work."


	2. The Five Year Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew of the Enterprise meets a company of strange men and women who believe that one day they will find Eden.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the first chapter.

Irina Galliulin decided she could not take another minute on the bridge, watching the ship get closer was suddenly terrifying. She walked to the biolift doors as Scotty entered beaming "lassie, what are you doing up here?" Before she could retort he had already moved on, it was at that moment that the Aurora blew up.  
"All crew of the Aurora safely beamed into the transporter captain." "Thank you, mr. Scott, would you bring them to me?"

The crew of the Aurora entered and the bald headed man spoke first, for the group as a whole, Kirk could tell he was the leader "captain we thank you." Kirk waved it away trying to look like not a attention seeker "pleasures all mine, welcome to the Enterprise, I am James Tiberius Kirk, Mr. Scott will assist you to your quarters."

"Keptin" Irina had moved next to him as the others had left, now she stood beside him and looked weary and worried "keptin, please send them from this ship? They will bring nothing but harm to you and your crew. Please before it is to late?"

Jim furrowed his brow and rested his chin on his clenched hand "what gives you that idea Engineer Galliulin? They look like just a harmless bunch of space hippies," Irina blanched whiter than snow, if possible, "keptin I can assure you they are anything but harmless."

"I'll admit Jim, I have a bad feeling about this," Jim raised his hands melodramaticly "you are taking this way out of proportion, they are harmless hippies, space hippies, they are spiffies," Spock raised one eyebrow "I to agree with the doctor," Kirk sat down with a thump "okay, now that was - unexpected," Bones shrugged "as much as it unsettles me that Spock agrees with me Jim, I think these people aren't what they appear to be, and from what I saw of Irina Galliulin's reaction, I think we should be wary."


	3. Irina

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Irina Galliulin finds herself trapped between her past and her possible future.

"You have always been too strict, too stiff, too afraid to break rules, you have always been too afraid to live and love." Chekov scowled "you have alvays been too free, you are the bird and I am the cage you are trapped in, it has alvays been so, vhy should I believe any different?" With that they had parted with a last kiss. "Engineer Galliulin come in please? Engineer Galliulin?" Irina got up and hit the com button on her wall "Galliulin here," "captain requests you on the bridge."

Irina nervously walked through the halls towards the bridge. "Not lost?" Bones asked her as she passed him, she stopped and gave him a little smile "no, thanks to you, I remember the way," they walked together to the biolift "tell me more about Mr. Kirk and the others on the Enterprise, tell me about Chekov? I need to know how he died and vhy he did, please tell me?" They were in the biolift "not now," he looked around as the biolift doors slid open with a hiss "but later maybe, kid," they walked in and Irina groaned. "I think you have something in your possession that does not rightfully belong to you Captain Kirk," the bald man in the toga like draped robes addressed Kirk with a scowl creasing his face, Jim matched his look, puzzled, "What can I possibly have on this ship that is yours? For we have just beamed you aboard, everything you owned was on that ship the Aurora. What can we possibly have that is yours?" Bones felt Irina backing into the biolift and caught her hand "where you going?" The bald man smiled "a girl, captain, a girl, she came on this ship as a crew member, recently, she belongs to me," Kirk did a double take "sorry, a girl!? A actual human girl? You own her? Are you slave traders?" The man laughed "slave traders!? No captain no, she is my adopted daughter, she ran away from me captain, you may have seen her, if not, I do not know what to do captain." Jim Kirk rolled his eyes and sighed "does this girl have a name?" In the biolift Irina was trying to get away "let me go! Let me go doctor McCoy!? You do not know zeese people!?" On the bridge the man nodded "yes she has a name, her name captain is Irina." Kirk blanched shaking his head then he noticed the small struggle by the biolift, and so did the man. He walked towards her holding out his arms dramatically "Irina! My darling!"


	4. Dr. Sevrin and the Aurora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Irina must decide between loyalty to an old life or the crew of the Enterprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, Herbert means someone who does not believe what the space hippies "spiffies" believe. So basically anyone on the crew.

Irina Galliulin sat down beside Bones at an empty table, "I go avay from zhem and still zhey follow, zhey find me," he looked up at her "damnit kid! I think you have some explaining to do, who the hell are these people? What's going on!?" Irina went white "I vill tell you my story. Vhen I vas six I vas loved by a mother and father, I also had a brother and sister, I had a happy childhood, but it was all to change, you see the year vas 2256 my father was one of zhe many killed by Kodos, you might have heard of zhat?" Bones nodded taking a sip of alchahol as he listened "four-thousand murdered, among zhem my sister, brother, and father." Bones looked up from the table "my mother and I vere hidden by my fathers friend Dr. Sevrin, zhe man you saw on zhe bridge, he spoke about peace and justice, he spoke about harmony, a place we could go to live, he called it Eden." Bones nodded "go on?" "He married my mother vhen I vas seven, he smuggled us off zhe planet and we began our life on another planet, but vee had to leave when an angry mob tried to kill him, vhen I vas young I did not know vhy, but now I do, I grew up in the shadow of fear and never saw zhe sky through zhe buildings and zhe smoke. Vhen I vas sixteen I left to go to Star Fleet, zhat is vere I met Pavel Andrievich Chekov. Vee became close friends then in time a couple, he vas zhe love of my life, vee had our fights yes, but vee never broke apart until a month before graduation, I got zhe letter zhat my mother vas sick, I got angry vith Pavel and vee fought, accusing each of petty things, I left, dropped out of Star Fleet Academy and vent back to my mother, but it vas all a trick, my mother she vas not sick! Next moment I vas helping zhem steal a space craft and vee went off in search of Dr. Sevrin's Eden. Vee searched long, every planet vee came to he said vas Eden, but zhey turned out to be nightmares, Eden does not exist. So a year ago I vanished, my mother had died on one of zhe said Edens so nothing vas there to hold me, so I escaped, I vent back to Star Fleet in search of Pavel, but he vas already aboard zhe Enterprise. I vas too late, so I moved on. It vas not until then that I found out zhee truth, Dr. Sevrin had vorked vith Kodos to kill all zhose people, my father among zhem. Zhey found me again and zhey have forced me to help zhem, zheir plan is to take over zhee Enterprise and fly it to another planet." Bones looked up into her tear stained face "you saying it wasn't an accident that we found them!?" "Zhey set zhee explosion on zhe Aurora so zhat zhey vould be beamed aboard, zhey have done zhis before,"

They met eyes over the table "do you believe me, doctor McCoy?" Before he could speak a unfamiliar voice blared over the com, and the first thing they mentioned was peace, love, harmony, and Eden. "Attention crew of the Enterprise, we have your captain in custody and are in control of the ship, we will be going in search of Eden, if anyone tries to fight back, any of you Herberts, I will take drastic measures, your lives are in our hands."  
Bones blanched "I am starting to believe you engineer Galliulin, I am starting to believe you."

Things had not been going well for the captain of the Enterprise and his crew. Not well at all, and now this. "Scotty is there any way we can get into engineering?" The com was silent.  
Things had also not been going well for Nurse Christine Chapel. Since the failed wedding ceremony and Ensign Chekov's death at the hands of Khan, and the arrival of the Russian girl, Bones had been away from her, even distant, and she didn't know why, she wanted badly to broach the subject with him, had tried once, but had been stopped by the oncoming Klingon vessels and a large onslaught of patients that had stolen her attention. It was clear to her though that something was not quite right with her fiancé.


	5. The Search for Eden.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christine and Bones talk. Irina still is deciding about which side she should take. Kirk and the crew try to break into engineering, while Dr. Sevrin stops the Enterprise from hailing anyone. The Enterprise is dead in the figurative water as the followers of Sevrin escape on board the Gallileo Seven shuttle on their way to Eden.  
> Will they find what they are looking for?

Irina Galliulin had always been afraid to take a stand against Sevrin and the others, sure, they all looked peaceful and loving, but underneath all those disguises, all the tie dye and flower prints, were people who would sooner slit someone's throat than go on living without finding their Eden, and they had. Irina still remembered the day when they had stolen the ship, The Aurora, from her hanger, she still remembered the pilot, the security, her mother, all dead, all Sevrin's doing. She remembered herself, a child still at sixteen, trying to pull her mother's lifeless body into the ship, she could taste her tears as if those tears had been shed yesterday, and she remembered how much she hated Dr. Sevrin. It had been from the gun he had held that the bullet that killed her mother had been shot from. It had been at his command and by his hand that her mother had died. She stood, finally deciding on a plan of action, she found her phaser, set it on stun, then walked out the door of her quarters and down the hallway. She didn't get far, two red shirts stood at the end of the hallway before her.  
"Well I think it very strange that someone like you should keep things to yourself, Leonard, talk to me, please?" Bones turned to look at her "well Christine, I don't like this, it's like Irina said, they have done this before, I think Jim was too lax about keeping them away from engineering and I know Scotty took a liking to one of them, that blonde one, well anyway Christine, now Scotty won't say contact Jim cause they're blocking the com, Irina won't tell me anything else, and the bridge is locked up tight like a vault! I can't reach anyone!" Dr. Sevrin smiled as he piloted the Gallileo Seven down to the planet, Alpha Centari Two, or as he liked to call it, Eden.


	6. History.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Irina makes a decision. Montgomery Scott finds himself in a tight spot. Sulu tries to override Dr. Sevrin's sabotage of the Enterprise, while Christine and Bones find themselves at opposite ends of coming to an agreement and have their hands full when disaster strikes.

Montgomery Scott was not having a great Friday night, he'd fallen, first of all, for the oldest trick in the book, had been made to feel like a superior engineer, while all she, the pretty blonde, had wanted was answers of how the engine worked and how the best way to sabotage the ship would be, and he had told her and while she had leaned in for a kiss she had knocked him out and taken over engineering, not only engineering, but the whole ship! Scotty moaned as he gingerly staggered to his feet by the engine rooms main controller. "Scotty! Mr. Scott!?" On the bridge Kirk was yelling into the com, Scotty rubbed his bruised head "I know, I know sir, hold your horses a wee second captain, and could ye quiet down captain!? I can hear you ya know!?"  
Sulu at navigation turned in his chair "captain, two shuttles have launched from hangar deck three sir," Kirk sat straighter in his chair "which shuttles Mr. Sulu?" Sulu checked "shuttles Gallileo seven, eight, no, nine, seven and nine, sir."  
"Christine, you don't understand -" crossing her arms Christine Chapel looked with sudden blooming distaste at her fiancé, "don't understand? What don't I understand?" Before McCoy could speak the com buzzed and Kirk's voice came over the speaker, Bones ran to the com switch and answered "McCoy here."  
"Bones, prep your sickbay for use, we might need it, oh and there is seven or eight people, minus Galliulin that might need medical. Kirk out." McCoy swore over the com "Galliulin? Damnit Jim what happened to her!? She injured!?" Irina Galliulin as it happened to be at the moment was not injured in the slightest, and was piloting the shuttle, Gallileo nine, with ease.  
She hailed the Enterprise, "Keptin, permission to go after Dr. Sevrin?" On board the Enterprise Kirk laughed hollowly, engineer Galliulin was hysterical, permission to go after him!? "Aren't you already doing that!?" Irina rolled her eyes "yes Keptin, I just vanted to hear you say yes, so zhat if you decide to court marshal me for not obeying orders, I can tell zhem zhat I vas given zhe affirmative from zhe keptin of zhe wessel zhe Enterprise." Kirk laughed again and turned to Spock "did she attend Star Fleet Academy when you were teaching there Spock? She's nuts, no, Galliulin, that is a no, now turn the shuttle around and get your tail back here now, that is an order." Spock looked worried and bent over the com "I too agree with the captain engineer Galliulin," he could hear Irina laugh over the com "Ah Mr. Spock, I alvays did like you, you vere alvays my favourite at Star Fleet Academy." He heard her flip off the com. Spock raised one eyebrow as he turned towards the captain "it is funny, most illogical, but she was always one of my favourite students." "Christine you know I didn't mean it that way!" Bones threw his medical bag into the arms of a waiting red shirt, instructing him to "be careful with that."


	7. Pavel Andrievich Chekov

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bones preps for takeoff. Irina makes a bad mistake and Scotty tries to fix the Enterprise.

Bones and Christine sat apart as they waited for the Gallileo eight to take off from the shuttle bay. "Christine," Bones turned sideways to look at her "I'm sorry, I know I've been distant, even a little cold, everything's been going wrong." At that moment they were hailed. "Bones you need to hear this!" Kirk switched over the com. "Keptin! Have Doctor McCoy beam down! Quick! Everyone needs medical! Adam is dead! Zhey are not listening to me! Zhey vill stay here and if zhey do zhey vill all die! Zhee ground is acid! Zhee food it is poisonous! Vee cannot valk vithout burning our feet! Please hurry!? Please!? Vill you get zhe doctor!?" The craft had started to lift out of the hangar, Bones switched on the com button between the other shuttles "Irina!? Just hold on, I'll be there in a second! Damnit!" He looked back at Christine "after all this is over, I'd love to talk."

Irina Galliulin sat huddled in the center of the Gallileo nine, holding her knees to her chest and crying, she closed her eyes as the salt from her tears stung. "Irina! Come, follow me." A year ago felt like a millennia. "Pavel vere are you taking me?" The sixteen year old Irina asked as Pavel Andrievich Chekov excitedly dragged her by the wrist into one of Star Fleet Academy's eleven science laboratories. Usually they just stargazed or fell asleep together in the tall grass by their separate dorms, but tonight Pavel had planned something special. He gave her a wide grin, laughed, and pulled her in for a kiss, "you vill see, you vill see." He got to the door which asked for his "Cadet authorisation code." Chekov smiled back at Irina, then mouthed at the communications box on the door "nine-five-wictor-wictor-one," the box beeped "authorisation code not recognised," Pavel scowled "nine-five-v-ictor-victor-one." The door clicked open and he sighed in relief and mouthed something in Russian before walking through the door. "Come on Irina," his voice called from the dark and he gave a gentle pull on her wrist. The lights snapped on. "Alright, I am going to use zhe transporter in zhee other room to transport something to this one." He ran into the other lab and she heard the two machines whir before the lights flickered, then blew out, she heard his voice from the darkness "Irina?" She struggled to find him, finally she knocked into something that moved, but it wasn't Pavel. The lights flashed on, blinding them, "Cadet Chekov, Cadet Galliulin, what a surprise." Commander Spock was right in front of Irina, she moved back a step, "Commander Spock, I," Chekov stepped forward "it vas my fault Mr. Spock."

Spock merely raised an eyebrow "your fault? Cadet Chekov? I thought you were merely here to test your scientific equations, I would hate to hold back your scientific growth by stopping you in what you are doing, Cadet Chekov, so please proceed. Cadet Galliulin." He had almost smiled, but he didn't, he didn't because he was Vulcan. After a moment Pavel turned back to the transporter and pointed "look Irina," she followed where he was pointing and gasped, for in the transporter was a small round hair ball like creature. She picked it up gently and it cooed as if it were very content in her hand, Pavel looked on happily "zhe man I bought him from in zhee Cadet's lounge called him a Tribble, he vas so wery cute I had to get one for you, happy birthday Irina." That present had turned out to be too much as it happened and a month later the poor Tribble was confiscated, the Tribble having made more of his kind until the fuzzy little things began to fill Irina's dorm room. The man who had sold Pavel his present for Irina had not told him any of this , but for the month she had the Tribble, it had been the best gift she had ever received. Irina opened her eyes, wishing she hadn't as reality came back to her all too quickly.

"Eh captain, she's almost fixed, just a little more here." Scotty wiped away the sweat on his brow and went back to fixing the primary engine.


	8. The Strange Encounte-r

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bones and Christine arrive on the planet.

"Captain, Jim, we've arrived on the planet, I can't find them, wait, Jim I see them, damnit Jim, it's like Galliulin said, the ground is acid, I put my foot out and even I start to feel it burn through my boot, that's it, I'm suiting up. Irina! We're here! Dr. Sevrin!? Irina!? Damnit! Jim, I can't reach them!" Bones growled under his breath "just my luck, getting dropped on an acidic planet."

"Captain! She's working like a dream Captain!" Kirk breathed a sigh of relief, he had been nervous for a second there "good Scotty! That's great news." "Eh sir it is! Oh and sir, could you tell the doctor this for me captain?" "Alright Scotty." Scotty frowned "could ya tell him to please bring back engineer Galliulin alive, if he pleases? She's good with the engines sir, she's a natural born engineer." Kirk smiled "I'll tell him, I think Mr. Scott it would please him greatly to bring them all back, safely. Kirk out."


	9. Shallow Bones.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Christine dies. (No she's one of my favourite characters, so that was a joke. She does not die.) 
> 
> The actual plot.
> 
> Spock beams down to help in the rescue attempts.

Spock had been standing beside Mr. Sulu at the helm for minutes when he finally decided he had had enough of waiting. "Captain, allow me to beam down to the planet so as to assist Dr. McCoy in the rescue of Dr. Sevrin and his followers, not to mention Irina Galliulin." Jim nodded "go,"

Irina Galliulin had made it as far as a large rock and no farther when she had seen Spock materialise before her stinging eyes. "Captain no sign of any of the-" he had caught sight of Irina "I have located Galliulin captain." He made his way over to her and handed her a pair of boots that were designed not to melt or be burned by acid, she pulled him in for a hug, crying. He pulled away a minute later with a embarrassed cough "I believe you humans need emotional comfort sometimes," Irina nodded and wiped away the tears, she looked down at the slightly bubbled photograph she held in her hand, the picture she had always carried with her, Chekov as a Star Fleet Cadet. "I am better now commander Spock." She slipped the photo into a pocket on her chest and tugged on the shoes over her blistering feet.  
"Sevrin and the others?" She shook her head "He vould not leave vhat he called his Eden, he ate one of zhee poisoned apples and he died, zhee others followed him, zhey vould rather have died zhen admit zhat zhey had been wrong once more, admit zhat Eden vas lost, a myth, a bedtime story to scare us so zhat vee vould be good. Zhey vould rather die than admit zhat."


	10. Eden.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew leaves Eden for good.

Jim Kirk waited for the return of all three shuttles to the hangar decks.

When he heard the com blare on "Jim, we are starting the trip back."

Jim Kirk smiled in relief "alright Bones, fill me in when you get back." On the shuttle Bones flipped off the com and went to check on his only patient.  
Christine Chapel was already there, speaking softly to a half awake Irina Galliulin "I am so sorry about my actions nurse Chapel, I did not think before I acted, it vas stupid of me, I acted off of feelings." Christine stroked the girl's wet hair off her forehead "it is okay dear," she watched Irina close her eyes, "nurse Chapel?" Christine squeezed Irina's hand "call me Christine," Irina looked up at her with tears in her eyes "my mother's name vas Anastasia Maria Ivanovna, but vhen she came to America she took an American name, the name she chose vas Christine, I miss her so wery much." Christine squeezed her hand "I miss Pavel," Christine blanched "Pavel Chekov? How did you know him?" Bones bent over them both, administered a dose of morphine through a needle and Irina smiled sleepily and whispered as she dozed off "He vas zhe love of my life." With that Bones and Christine sat down to talk for the first time it seemed in hours. The craft rocketed through space until it found it's hangar and slowly began to dock.


	11. The End to the Beginning.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starting out on yet another journey Bones is anything but ecstatic.

"Glad to have you aboard Engineer Galliulin." She had smiled and stated with a small look towards Spock "I am glad to be aboard Keptin, now I know vhy Pavel loved this ship and zhis crew, it feels like home now." 

"Jim! Are you plain plum crazy!?" Jim Kirk stopped in his tracks and turned about to face his friend in the biolift "come on Bones, five years in space, it'll be fun." "Five years in space, he said, it'll be fun, he said." Oh yes, it had been real fun. The wounds and the deaths, losing the Enterprise, losing that bright spark of life that had been Pavel Chekov. Jim had been right - it had sure been "fun" Bones rolled his eyes angrily as he watched the others in front of him disappear over a small hill.  
He kept walking, muttering to himself, "yeah, it's been real fun, what with outbreaks of space worm and who knows what else everywhere, and that thing on Scotty's arm, I can't catch a break." Irina Galliulin smiled as she walked in stride with the still muttering doctor "try being an engineer."  
James Kirk looked back at them "not far now, come on."

"Are you okay Engineer Galliulin?" Irina Galliulin nodded as she stood looking down over the ghostly valley they would be hiking into to reach their destination.  
She nodded at the doctor who came to stand beside her, "oh, yes Doctor McCoy, I vas just thinking of something." Bones moved off grumbling again.


End file.
